Community Review - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Man, I barely need to write words here. I'm guessing that a decent majority of you guys spent a fair amount of time in the world of Skyrim over the weekend, and I'm very keen to hear what you all thought of it.

Despite going through hell and highwater to get myself a copy of Skyrim for the weekend, I ended up not being able to start my game this weekend, which pained me enormously. On Friday night I decided I was going to try and finish off Uncharted 3, mainly because I had a lot of momentum going into the final third and I wanted to give Skyrim my full undivided attention. That ended up taking a little longer than I thought it would.

I finished Uncharted 3 on the Saturday, then I totally got bogged down in doing stuff. On this weekend alone I had a 21st Birthday party, a first birthday party, and an engagement party to go to. And that was just the start -- I had committed to going climbing on the Saturday afternoon, and I had to sit through two hours of my wife's bookclub, with the only positive being that I got to eat bacon while doing it.

Thankfully, this week is Skyrim week for me. I have the whole house to myself for the week, so I plan on disappearing from the world for a while.

Anyway, enough of my rambling -- what did you guys think of the game? How was your first weekend in Skyrim? Let me know in the comments below.

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Comments

Only Kidding, the amount of time this could consume if i let it would be astronomical. I haven't even gone to riverrun yet and i have clock 4 hours doing random stuff. The graphics are pretty mad playing on PC)

I got drunk, woke up on the other side of the world and now I'm running back through the world collecting various items used to retrace my steps such as beer, a goat, a giants toe, and a wedding ring to an old witch, just so that I can get a staff I won in the drinking contest that I probably won't use and won't be worth a lot of money at the stores.

Actually that staff was pretty epic and worth a shitload. Totally worth it :P

My review: Amazing. I only decided to get it on Friday. I was gonna wait until Christmas. I wasn't really excited about the game. Anyway. I got it. And my impression after about 20 hours of play is that it could be the best single player since Diablo 2. Continues to surprise me how amazing a game it is.

*points to nose* yup, you just pretty much summed up the long and the short of that quest. It's still pretty fun/hilarious though if you're not expecting it. Which I wasn't... but I guess now everyone who reads this thread will be :-P... oops

Fantastic, the hype had me scared, but this is definitely the bethesda i know and love. Having to deal with steam bs to get to it didnt make me happy, but 43 hours of gameplay over the past 3 days has made me very happy.

The game seems to seriously lend thought to a lot of major complaints about the franchise, like the leveled enemies and horse animations from oblivion.

The visuals are also fucking amazing, almost picture perfect even on my out of date video card. The audio is great, having fun picking out the various voice actors.

The world actually feels large this time, i think it has something to do with the way they built the landscape. As the crow flies it is probably only marginally larger than oblivion, but i find myself feeling like i am exploring a large country rather than an area no bigger than a major metropolis like oblivion

Still has some bugs to iron out, like the corpse that attended my wedding, but i am sure the developers are on top of that. 10/10 cant wait for the next one.

The graphics are amazing, even on a cheap tv and ps3 the game feels totally immersive; similarly the character models are a massive improvement from previous Elder Scrolls (and even Fallouts) and the game world really comes to life. The animations for NPCs are pretty good, I can't find flaws really, character animations especially going up mountains and jumping could do some improvement, though I don't think its possible for it to be even better.

The new combat system is very good; I enjoy dual-wielding and being able to have magic in one hand and a weapon on the other is damn amazing. The animations and swinging a sword still feel a bit clunky, and the way arrows move until you've got a few perks in archery need a bit of work. I've found its easier in 3rd person if you are dual wielding, that way you can see exactly where both swords are.

Theres some really weird stuff plot/lorewise though, I went to Markath and found myself embroiled in a side-quest where I just couldn't understand what was going on. Very strange. Similarly, the civil war seems a tad weird to me; I cant put my finger on exactly why, the whole ting seems more than a bit stupid once you start visiting holds and the like. I'm not far enough through the plot to give suggestions though.

there loads more I can talk about, i probably sank a good 12 into it this weekend even with uni exams starting today.

p.s Bethesda, don't put a frost troll/other-difficult-enemy on a path that people who have just started the game are going to travel. Dragons are easily to kill, trolls and sabre-cats and bears are hard.

without spoiling stuff. The Markath quest to me seemed to be, kill this person and this person, without being diplomatic or sneaky. If you can understand the plot behind it WHILE you are doing it, congrats.

I was thirty odd hours into the game, having participated in lots of stuff, and i still really didnt get the markarth stuff or the forsworn. I think that area of the pplot might be a big letdown, or i missed something massive.

I did pretty much the same thing. The only reason I knew I'd chosen was because it popped up and told me I'd completed an objective, which was to go with imperial or stormcloak guy. Got halfway down the road from helgen and thought wait, I don't want to be Imperial.

Reloaded back to Helgen and noticed instead of running straight ahead with Imperial guy, Stormcloak guy goes off to your right. Was interesting they didn't make such a big choice much clearer. I mean I guess it was my first time playing, and there was a dragon tearing about, so I just ran inside.

"p.s Bethesda, don’t put a frost troll/other-difficult-enemy on a path that people who have just started the game are going to travel. Dragons are easily to kill, trolls and sabre-cats and bears are hard."

Yeah, that frost troll early on was a giant pain in the ass. I assumed that since it was there on that path so early on in the story that I was supposed to be able to beat it, and I almost did, but in the end I just chickened out and ran past it.

For those disappointed with the difficulty of the dragons, I have run into a few random ones that were much harder than the initial one.

I find myself more tied to the main quest this time round, compared to Oblivion. It takes a little while getting used to the new indicators on the compass, and I suppose navigating yourself around in general. Once you get the hang of it though, it's alright (I'm playing this on PS3).

Wandering around takes a long while for me, and I usually steer away from the main road. What's fun is the run-ins with different monsters. There was a moment where I was trekking across a mountain when one of the great beasts decided to land on me and my beloved horse...that was fun.

Once you have the ball running, there's so many quests to choose from. I guess one of the things I plan to be doing is trying to navigate my way to the big towns before I really settle and focus on dealing with the quests.

Overall though, I sense that this game is going to be...addictive. Love the graphics, audio, the variety of weapons and stories. Yup, it will be addictive.

I haven't done much outside general world exploration, but I'm loving it. Even the Companions quest chain (Fighter guild) seems worthwhile this time, and they have a track record of being the worst.

The battle system is quite fun - I'm a Dark Elf spell sword and I'm still loving roasting dudes.

I just can't get over how well it runs. It's not the best looking game, but the draw distance is incredible. And I haven't encountered any bugs at the ten hour mark. This is unbelievable - its like Bethesda did and internal Beta for once.

This, Witcher 2 and Portal 2 all tie for my GotY. Its been a good year.

I'm in LOVE with this game! With the new system of levelling up and skills, it's much easier to just play the game as you want to from the outset. I'm a sneaky archer, who can finish fights off with a mace up close (using a weapon and shield is very much improved over Oblivion, it feels natural to attack and block now), and can burn enemies to a crisp with dualcast flame spells. I'm also a werewolf!

I watched a walrus and an ice wolf fight to the death, then killed the victor and stripped their corpses, before running across chunks of floating ice to a river, and swam down to the shipwreck at the bottom of a giant trench. I've probably played about 12 hours, and I've already done all this... pulling myself away from it to study for exams has been torture!

Sadly my first weekend with Skyrim was put on the backburner after certain events happened.

I only got to play an hour or so, most of which I think I spent in the creation screen. I can't wait to play some more. Dual weilding a mace and fire magic was so much fun! Everyones been posting stories on Twitter and it just makes me want to play it more.

Graphically it's beautiful. Unlike previous Elder Scrolls games it's actually possible to make a character who looks good. The scenery is just amazing. It truly is breathtaking to stand atop a mountain and gaze out on the world sprawled before you.

Combat is a lot of fun and you've got a lot of room to play the sort of character you want to play. Heavy armour, light armour, dual wield weapons or spells, use a bow, go for the sword and shield approach. It's all up to you. Then there are shouts. Possibly one of the greatest things ever. You can kill things by yelling at them. It makes you feel like such a badass. Not to mention you can set yourself up for a lot of fun with the fully upgraded Unrelenting Force shout.

Third person combat is also grealty improved. I don't know about everyone else but I felt trying to engage in third person combat in both Morrowind and Oblivion was horrible. That's not the case in Skyrim. You'll have just as much fun in third person as you will in first.

There's also some really fun non combat skills like blacksmithing. Watching your character work a forge is surpisingly enjoyable. Also, though not a skill, using a lumber mill is a lot of fun.

The voice acting is top notch and the quests are just as great as the previous games. One improvment over the previous games though is the main quests. I'm only early on in it but so far it's far more interesting then the main quests from Oblivion.

There are a wide variety of enemies and all are fun to fight. The level scalling will throw you at first. You'll be able to take down dragons but a wild bear will mop the floor with you but once you level up a bit and unlock some new abilites you'll find the challenge provided by some creatures quite fun. It's also very rewarding when after having been beaten by a creature a number of times you go off, level up and then come back and defeat it.

There are some flaws in the game of course, nothing is perfect after all.

You don't have the ability to fully rotate your character during creation which means you can't see what some hairstyles will look like from the back. Since if you're playing third person you're going to be spending a lot of time looking at your character from behind I think this is a pretty big oversight on Bethesdas part.

In my personal oppinion the perk system feels a bit restrictive. You can choose to put your points into one handed weapons and heavy armour but if you decide later on you want to try out wearing light armour and using a bow you're no going to feel as powerful as before and will be unable to reach your full potential. You can choose to become a god at combat but then you'll miss out on the non combat skills like Blacksmithing and Speech. If you do decide to go with some of those non combat skills then you're not going to be as powerful as you could be and fights may become a lot harder. I think the inability to respec is a pretty big let down.

They've also nerfed jumping and removed unarmed (for the most part, you can still punch things, you just can't spec into it, and there are brawls which are pretty fun), athletics and acrobatics.

All in all though it's a fabulous game, the best Elder Scrolls yet in my opinion, and definitely a game of the year contender. I should also note that I'm playing the game on PC with the graphics set to ultra high. I can't comment whether or not the scenery and characers look as amazing on lower settings or on the 360 or PS3 versions of the game.

I ventured out into Skyrim a second time, following the guard this time and not my fellow prisoner, and.. a few short stops later.. I'm now wielding the Wabbajack.

I love coming across some total random quests. Some coming to predictable ends, like doing a favour for an Argonian and it turns out the Argonian is a bad guy, to agreeing to do something for a Dunmer and meeting Sheogorath who's last bit of quest took me a disappointing amount of time to realise what I was supposed to do.

I just now started enough of the main quest to trigger the random dragon attacks so I can kick ass there too.

Now, if only I could find what this dang key is supposed to unlock.. I'll be set :-)

Ok, none of that is true, but the thing that struck me about Skyrim was that it felt *right*. While morrowind and oblivion had me reaching for mods immediately, I find that Skyrim is by far the best Vanilla bethesda game I've played, as everything is damn near perfect.

Also, anyone who is playing as a Kahjiit, Does your unarmed attacks scale as you level? Because I got my ass handed to my by an unarmed Kahjiit, and it was one of those "holy shit" moments. Wandering the lands, he comes out of nowhere with his bandit buddies and whales on me, and before I know it the camera switched to third person to show him punch my character in the face, pick me up, and slam me to the ground, undoubtedly snapping my neck on a fallen log.

NEXT CHARACTER: KAHJIIT MONK. TAKE NO SHIT, PUNCH DRAGONS, TAKE SKOOMA, LIVE THE LIFE.

Kreusei, Hands down my first character I make in every Elder Scrolls game. Heavy Armor, Warhammers, Mysticism and Restoration skills, with some Alchemy thrown in for good measure. Wandering the lands, helping out people and just generally being the typical "Hero". With mysticism removed from Skyrim though, I compromised and got Alteration, and now I dabble in weaponsmithing.

My second one is a Wood Elf assassin who I actually made on a whim and now he's turned into my main character, as it's now so much fun to be sneaky. Slitting people's throats from behind, and I always love the dual dagger finisher which is essentially just driving both daggers into their guts.

I would say my favorite moment by far would be a dragon attack... inside winterhold (or is it whiterun?). I didn't think dragons would pop up in the self contained cities, but out of nowhere A friggin' dragon just lands on a roof and starts spewing fire everywhere. MEN, TO ARMS!

Also, I was hoping for the Dark Brotherhood missions to be up to par with Oblivion's stunning "Locked in a house" mission, but nothing. Kinda sad about that one.

I bought Skyrim on a whim on friday afternoon, having my first quiet weekend in a while. I'm about 23-24 hours in and hooked beyond any hope of redemption. This is the game I never realized I was waiting for!
I absolutely loved Fallout 3 but couldn't really get into Oblivion. The repetition drove me nuts, every daedric tower felt exactly the same, so I was not following the hype for this one at all.
Very pleasantly surprised. Easily my game of the year (so far).

See, you're who I want to hear form. Found Oblivion fairly cold and dull. Loved Fallout 3. Skyrim has me intrigued though and so I want to know what people who had the same feeling about Oblivion as I did think.

I enjoyed oblivion, but i found it fairly empty too, even compared to morrowind. I find that that has turned around completely in Skyrim. I actually find it hard to concentrate on one quest as i get sidetracked constantly by the world and the locations and the ecosystems it contains. For example: on the way to a quest a girl came up to me and wanted to play hide and seek, so i did. had so much fun i forgot what i was doing. I think that may be the definition of Immersion.

Yeah, I was nailing Dragons comfortably, there was a little challenge, but nothing I couldn't handle.

But I was getting murdered by Trolls, Spriggand's, Bears etc....something just feels off with the creature levels. Dragons should the top of the pile..and in this they don't seem to be that challenging.

Its a good game, and I've enjoyed it...but my interest is more seeing how the engine works, because this will be what Fallout 4 runs on

Yeah, instead of continuing the main plot I ran around until about level 11 doing sidequest stuff (including doing one of the main plot locations early, it turned out- The Dev Team Thinks Of Everything when I got to the dialogue about it in the main plot). And it started to become a BIT tricky due to snowy saber cats and the like. So I figured I might as well do the main plot, learn to shout, and oh by the way get a companion. Makes all the difference.

(Meanwhile dragons are way too easy to just shoot full of arrows, I am hoping they get a bit trickier as times goes on).

I've started having Blood Dragons show up randomly and they're a much better challenge, I think there are levels of dragons like there are levels of Draugur, bandits etc. The most difficult encounter I had was with a Blood Dragon and a Draugur Priest named Krosis (those dudes with the awesome masks) at the same time, damn that was a fun fight :)

I have a feeling that the dragons may level with you, so they'll always be that comfortable challenge level, wheras the other crazy tough enemies like trolls and sabertooths etc will become quite easy when you level up some more.

Skyrim is a monster – intimidating in scope, wondrous in composition – that somehow manages to be far greater than the sum of its occasionally flawed parts. Melee combat can be inaccurate; with every missed swing your fearsome hero gesticulates wildly, like a gymnast practicing a routine. The voice acting is inconsistent - not on a par with Bioware’s standards - NPC’s having the tendency to talk over one another at crucial moments. Bethesda’s grand-scale approach also, understandably, allows the odd bug to slip through. Yet despite these flaws, the province of Skyrim and the tales and adventures contained within are captivating. Where a lesser game would be seriously hampered by these faults, here, they pale into insignificance. Roaming the rugged wilds, I have found myself staring into the distance, contemplating the notion that this could quite possibly be the best game I’ve ever played.

Yeah, the voice acting is very hit or miss. Some Nords are doing Arnie. Some are doing their idea of Swedish or Norwegian or Danish accents. At least a couple are South African. But then, Bethesda's attention to detail always begins and ends with the world-building. Characters and technical bugs are secondary.

(I've only encountered two bugs so far, though: invisible horsie- which makes me long for a screenshot button on PS3- and the transmute iron spell, which makes the iron disappear whenever it says it transmutes it to silver, although it works properly when it transmutes to gold).

I basically spent my entire weekend playing this. I have to say that, for me, it's the most polished RPG I've seen Bethesda put out. I am a massive Fallout 3 fan and NOT a fan of Oblivion but this Elder Scrolls is awesome. I can't wait until the next Fallout game if this is what we're looking at EY GUYS.

I put 40 hours into Skyrim over my three day weekend. The hype had driven me crazy over the last year and I was pretty much in a frenzy by 10/11/11 at 9pm. I was really worried that it would be super buggy on PC or that I'd just be disappointed, I didn't even like oblivion!

I have to agree.....best game ever played. I put in 45 hrs between thursday evening and sunday afternoon and loved every second. I haven't done too many crazy things yet but have realised you don't want to piss off the giants.